Of course, next up on the Fox Marvel slate is "The Wolverine" -- director James Mangold's adaptation of the classic Chris Claremont/Frank Miller comic that takes the man called Logan to Japan. While the film starring Hugh Jackman has been in production for months, Millar promised that it would play a pivotal role in the long term Marvel game plan. "I didn't work on 'The Wolverine' in a direct sense. There were about two months of 'Wolverine' shooting done when I got this job, but I've got a couple of ideas from it. The only guy I don't really know yet is James Mangold, and I wasn't involved in that screenplay -- though I read it and loved it. But the thing is, I felt like 'Iron Man' was really the beginning of something for the Marvel Studios movies, and 'The Wolverine' will be a similar starting point to build a lot off of for the Fox movies."

That idea will roll into "X-Men: Days of Future Past" when it starts production next year, and the writer said the change in roles behind the scenes for original "X-Men" director Singer and "X-Men: First Class" helmer/Millar friend Matthew Vaughn would allow for some fun twists to the formula. "Bryan's worked as a producer even on the X-Men movies that he didn't direct -- he was a producer on 'First Class.' So when Matthew decided he wasn't going to do the sequel, they just switched places with Matthew producing and Bryan coming on to direct. That's got nothing to do with me, but I'm delighted that Bryan and I will get to work together over the next few years. I've been working with Josh Trank on 'Fantastic Four,' and I have a lot of ideas of other places we can go with the characters Fox has the rights to."

Asked if there were any specific characters from the X-Men world that he'd like to get on the screen sooner rather than later, Millar did play a little shy, though he noted some obvious picks for longtime fans. "That's such a hard question to answer because all the characters I'd want to use, we're already planning on using in some way," he said. "I flew out to LA and talked to Fox, having a days worth of meetings to hammer out ideas. There's an amazing amount of potential in the X-Men universe. It's almost a Marvel Universe in itself in that you can build up to so many great stories and so many great characters. I hesitate to name names, but let's say that all the ones you like and everyone you'd expect, we'll have them. It's insane to have the crown jewel and not expect to wear them.

"You have to remember that Fox grabbed the X-Men back in the '90s because it was the biggest franchise in the world. So X-Force or Cable or Deadpool -- all these amazing characters are things we haven't really gotten to yet. 'X-Force' #1 was the second biggest book of all time behind Jim Lee's 'X-Men' #1, so there's an immediate brand recognition to that stuff and a build in fanbase. You go to any convention in the world, and you'll see 20 people dressed as Deadpool. In a lot of ways, these are Marvel's coolest characters, so I want to remind people of that and build on what we already have. I think there's a great foundation, and just from basic conversations, we've come up with ten movies we could do. These things cost $150 million each to make, so we have to pick and choose what we want to do."

The thing is unless they directly mention the Fantastic Four and that Franklin is Reed and Sue's son, no one outside of comic book readers would understand the connection. And if they do blatantly state that he is the son of sue and reed of the fantastic four it wouldn't be much of a 'hint'.

Finally sounds like they might be using some of the potential they have. Im liking that hes even mentioning the popularity of X-Force and Deadpool. They need some of these characters in their own/team flicks asap and to give us something new. So Fox does have Cable?

He sometimes doesn't come across that well, as though just hyping everything to death. The fanboys on that other site, where hatred lives and breathes in cesspools of negativity, don't like him at all. But then again, they don't seem to like anything!

__________________Show me an X-Men comic where Mystique is the leader and walks round all day as a bored blonde

I think the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning might be on the cards after The Wolverine. But that's just a guess, I may be wrong.

How weird that the sixth movie in the series is now seen as a starting point!

Even though the spot JG logo from the set of The Wolverine is from the Great Gatsby set; it still looks and ALOT like the logo for the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. I'm with you. I don't think we can dismiss it quite yet.

And I like what Millar said about the three studios. Because he's right, if all the characters were back at Marvel Studios, there's no way in Hell we'd be getting Iron Man 3, The Wolverine, Thor 2, Capt. America 2, X-Men: DOFP, GOTG, Ant-Man and Amazing Spider-Man 2 within the next two years. It just wouldn't happen.

I'm in the same boat. I wouldn't be surprised if he was the one that started the rumor that Vaughn left helming this movie so he can direct the new iteration of Star Wars as well. That way the movie that Vaughn (and him) is really working on gets a mention in headline-grabbing Star Wars flicks.

Vaughns the one to blame there either way. He bailed...again. Im sure that film has been long into pre production between the two since he works on writing the comic with Millar.

Reading this interview Fox could have been doing this from the get go. Instead they had to take a hint from Marvel, either cause of risks or they really just didnt get it. I really hope we see some chances taken outside Singers X Men movies. There really are a ton of great X characters to work with in the Future. They have a gigantic universe to work within and start creating.

I don't know the first thing about Mark Millar (I won't touch Ultimate X-Men with a 10 foot pole) but something about him rubs me the wrong way... maybe something about the way he comes across, almost as if he's like "MAN FOX was headed in such a pitiful state with X-Men, thank GOD they hired ME!"

Also I don't like the idea of uniting FF and X-Men. TBH I've never liked X-Men and other heroes in the same universe even in Marvel comics... why is it that X-Men are hated and feared but FF get their own damn tower and are considered celebs? Why is Spider-Man generally a well-liked individual by the folks of New York? Teeecccchnically FF and SM aren't "mutants" per se but using that technicality is like narrow-minded bigots hating people for being born gay but being ok with those who are "accidentally" gay.

I also don't think DOFP is the time or place for FF to appear beyond perhaps a nod (like a ruined FF tower in the future). They weren't around in the 60s so really the future is the only opportunity to hint at them. The third FC movie should not take place any later than the 80s, which is still too early to bring in FF, and ideally the third movie won't deal with present-day X-Men (I'm hoping they use DOFP to create two lines: FC trilogy and a new set of current-timeline X-Men, in SEPARATE films).

Either way like I said, do not see FF and X-Men tying together as a necessary thing. Just because Avengers got it more or less right doesn't mean "Fantastic 4 & The X-Men" will be a license to print money.